Defiant: Iran has hinted it could reopen talks with the West, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists it will not give up its nuclear ambitions

Iran has indicated it is ready to revive talks with the West as Tehran cedes ground in the face of toughened sanctions.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted international pressure will not force Iran to give up its demands, including the continuing enrichment of uranium, which forced the collapse of dialogue last year.

But a senior UN nuclear agency team is expected to visit Tehran on Saturday - the first since a report in November that alleged Iran was on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon.

The U.S. and European allies want Iran to stop making nuclear fuel, which they worry could lead to weapons-grade material and the production of nuclear weapons.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

He said: 'It is you who come up with excuses each time and issue resolutions on the verge of talks so that negotiations collapse.

'Why should we shun talks? Why and how should a party that has logic and is right shun talks?

'It is evident that those who resort to coercion are opposed to talks and always bring pretexts and blame us instead.'

Security: A satellite image of Lavizan Shiyan - a restricted area in Tehran - which was completely dismantled after it was suspected of harbouring missile equipment

A delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be led by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, who is in charge of the Iran nuclear file.

Iran began uranium enrichment at a new underground site built to withstand possible airstrikes earlier this month, in another show of defiance against Western pressure to rein in its nuclear programme.

Centrifuges at the bunker-like Fordo facility near Iran's holy city of Qom are churning out uranium enriched to 20 per cent.

That level is higher than the 3.5 per cent being made at Iran's main enrichment plant at Natanz, central Iran, and can be turned into warhead material faster and with less work.

Iran says it won't give up its right to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel, but it has offered to allow the IAEA inspectors to visit its nuclear sites to ensure that its programme won't be weaponised.

The nuclear programme has been the target of covert Western operations, believed to have been carried out by Israel's Mossad.

Four nuclear scientists have been killed in the last two years there, and there have also been mysterious explosions at nuclear facilities.

Mr Ahmadinejad also said sanctions and oil embargo will backfire because it has minimum trade with EU.

'Americans have not purchased Iranian oil for 30 years. Our central bank has had no dealings with them ... our (total) foreign trade is about $200 billion.

'Between $23billion to $24billion of our trade is with Europeans, making up about 10 per cent of our total trade ... Iran won't suffer,' he said.

The EU had been importing about 450,000 barrels of oil a day from Iran, making up 18 per cent of Iran's oil exports.